


I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

by Small_Hobbit



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 22:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2086248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The whole garden had an air of tranquillity, or it would have had it not been for the dead body under the rose bush.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Lewis Summer Challenge on LJ. Based on a prompt from Willowbrooke, who suggested a story set in a garden.
> 
> Many thanks to Somniare for all her hard beta work. Any remaining mistakes are entirely mine.

DI Lewis looked around admiringly at the garden and made a mental note of some of the plants he could see, ones he thought could be grown in his own small plot. The whole garden had an air of tranquillity, or it would have had it not been for the dead body under the rose bush. He finished looking around and went to join DS Hathaway who was talking to Laura Hobson.

“I understand this is Professor William Broadbent,” Lewis said. “Who found the body?”

“The gardener. He’s in the kitchen with Wright,” Hathaway answered.

“Has he given a statement yet?”

“No, too shaken up. Wright was making him a cup of tea and I said someone would interview him soon.”

“Right. Let’s go and do it now; unless Laura needs either of us.”

“That’s okay. I can manage perfectly well without you,” Laura answered. “If you come back once you’ve spoken to the gardener I may have further information.”

Lewis and Hathaway made their way to the kitchen, where they found PC Wright and a man in his sixties. Lewis introduced himself and Hathaway, to which the other man gave his name as Cedric Dodds.

They shook hands and Lewis said, “I understand you were the one who found the body?”

“Yes. I’m sorry. It’s shaken me up rather a lot.”

“That’s quite understandable. It would be helpful if you could tell us how you came to find the body. But take your time.”

“Right.” Dodds took a deep breath, clearly going through in his mind what he was going to say. “I got here just after seven. I can’t be sure of the exact time, does that matter?”

“Not at the moment, no,” Hathaway replied. “Is that the time you normally arrive?”

“No, I usually don’t come ‘til nine-ish; Mrs Broadbent prefers it, but in the hot weather I’ve been coming earlier, so I can get on while it’s cooler. The professor had said that wasn’t a problem.”

“That makes sense to me,” Lewis said.

“I work Tuesday and Thursday, so I did what I do every Tuesday – had a look round the garden to see if there was anything that needed dealing with urgently, before I got on with the regular jobs; that’s when I saw the rosebush.”

“You mean you saw the body?” Hathaway asked.

“No,” Dodds said. “I saw the rosebush. It’s not one I planted. I wondered why the hell - sorry inspector - why anyone would have planted a rose bush in that particular flower bed. So I went over to have a look at it. Which was when I saw the professor. Thinking he’d been taken ill, I knelt down and pulled him towards me. And then I saw the knife sticking out of him. I shouldn’t have touched him, I realise, but ...”

“You thought he was ill, so you did the natural thing,” Lewis said reassuringly. “Did you touch the knife?”

“I honestly don’t know. I don’t really remember anything until I was running across the lawn.”

Hathaway nodded, “We’ll need to take your fingerprints.”

“Of course. I used the phone in the kitchen to call the police.” Dodds indicated the phone on the worktop. “And then I waited.”

“So the back door was unlocked?” Hathaway asked.

“It must have been. The professor liked to walk in the garden first thing in the morning. I think I just assumed it would be. I’ve got a mobile phone, but I didn’t even think of using it.”

“Did you go to notify Mrs Broadbent?” Lewis asked.

“No. The telephone operator said I should wait for the police. Mrs Broadbent doesn’t like me coming into the rest of the house – barely tolerates me in the kitchen – so, I dunno, I thought it would be better if I didn’t upset her. Stupid really.”

“We don’t always do the most sensible things when we’ve had a shock,” Lewis said. “By phoning us you did what was important. I don’t think there’s anything else we need to know for now, although we may want to talk to you again later. And you’re quite sure that rose wasn’t there when you came last week?”

Dodds expression showed that he was sure.

“What _was_ there before?” Lewis asked.

“Lupins,” Dodds answered without hesitation.

“Very strange,” Lewis said.

There was a knock on the kitchen door and Wright went to open it.

“May I come in?” asked a woman in a floral print dress. She saw Lewis and approached him, holding out her hand as she did so. “I’m Emilia Broadbent; I assume you are the police.”

“Yes, madam. DI Lewis, and this is DS Hathaway.”

“Have you finished speaking to Dodds? And if so, is he free to go home?”

“For the moment, yes.”

“Thank you. I shan’t be needing you for the rest of the day Dodds, but don’t worry, I’ll pay you for the hours you would normally have worked. It’s unlikely you’d be able to do anything today, even if you stayed.”

Dodds went to leave by the back door. Wright was going to stop him, but he explained that he needed his bicycle, which was leaning against the fence. Wright turned to look at Hathaway, who nodded his agreement and the constable escorted him out.

Lewis asked Mrs Broadbent what she could tell them.

“I woke up with the radio at 7.30. I normally listen to some music, Radio 3, before getting up around eight. This morning, however, I heard the police arrive and naturally got up to see what was happening.”

“Do you share a room with your husband?” Lewis asked.

“Oh yes, but in the summer he gets up early, usually around 4.30. I’m so used to him doing this I hardly register that he’s moved.”

“But he came to bed last night?” Hathaway said.

“He was in bed when I came up. I had been out to see friends yesterday evening, and arrived home about quarter to eleven. He had already gone to bed then.”

“Was that unusual?” Hathaway asked.

“Not at all. He generally went to bed around ten. Although it may have been later last night. I noticed the kettle was still warm when I went to make myself a cup of tea.”

“Were you aware of anything untoward as regards your husband in the last few days?” Lewis asked.

“No. He was involved in yet another academic spat, but I’d hardly call that untoward.”

“Thank you,” Lewis said. “One final question. Had you or your husband dug up some lupins over the weekend and replaced them with a rosebush?”

“What a strange question. I never interfered in the garden – I left that up to William and Dodds. And William wouldn’t do anything like that without consulting Dodds.”

“Was Dodds very protective of his garden?” Hathaway asked.

“He liked it to look its best. He also had a much better idea of what would grow in which part of the garden than William had, but I wouldn’t describe him as protective.”

“Thank you. I have no further questions for you at the moment, but please don’t hesitate to contact us if you think of anything or if we can do anything for you,” Lewis said.

As they walked back into the garden Hathaway commented quietly to Lewis that Emilia Broadbent had seemed very calm considering her husband had just been murdered.

“Possibly. But I got the impression that she was keen for us to leave. She struck me as the sort of person who would wish to grieve in private,” Lewis answered.

Lewis turned as one of the constables called out to him. “Sir!”

“Yes?”

“Mrs Broadbent wondered if it would be all right if she closed the curtains that looked out onto the garden and also the kitchen blinds. She said it would be a bit easier for her.”

“Yes, I can’t see why not. Go and do it for her.”

They walked across the garden to where Laura was finishing up.

“Can you tell me much?” Lewis asked.

“Death by stab wound, as you might expect. Killed sometime in the early hours this morning; I’ll be able to give you a better idea once I do the post mortem. Also, not killed in situ; there’s not enough blood.”

“That follows,” Lewis said. “Dodds, the gardener, said he didn’t see the knife until he rolled Broadbent over. I see the rose bush has fallen down.”

“Whoever put Broadbent here seems to have tried to dig a hole for him and must have disturbed the rosebush in the process,” Laura replied.

“According to Dodds,” Hathaway said, “This rose bush wasn’t here last week. Can you tell whether the bush was planted before or after the body was put here?”

“Given that he’d already been moved before I examined him, I would prefer not to answer that question yet. I’ll certainly keep that in mind later though.”

Lewis indicated that the body could be taken away. Once that had been done, he and Hathaway looked more closely at the ground where it had been laid.

“Nice soil,” said Lewis. “I wish mine was more like this.”

“It could be if you were prepared to pay for it.”

“Hmpf! Look, this is all much darker than the soil further away.”

“So whoever put the body here also planted the rose bush at the same time.”

Lewis looked at the now rather bedraggled rose. “It’s a shame. It’s rather a nice rose. I might have thought of getting one for my garden; I’ve been looking for a bright red rose for a while.”

One of the forensics officers looked up. “They are nice. I’ve got one. It’s called Fire Fighter.”

Hathaway looked thoughtful. “And whoever planted the rose must have also taken the lupins away. I take it you haven’t found a clump of lupins discarded anywhere?”

“No. We’ve found what may be scuff marks that would tie in with bringing the body through the garden - I can show you them - but we’ve not found any lupins. Would it be possible to find out their colour – we could then see if we can find any stray petals.”

“I’ll phone the gardener and ask him,” Hathaway said.

A few minutes later Hathaway came off the phone, having spoken to Dodds. “That was interesting,” he said. “The flowers are bright orange or red and the variety was Towering Inferno.”

“There has to be a connection,” Lewis said. “Replace a towering inferno with a fire fighter. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Agreed,” Hathaway replied. “Do you think Mrs Broadbent would be up to answering a few more questions?”

“It’s worth a try. And phone Julie up to ask her to check out Dobbs, see if we’ve got anything on him.”

Hathaway did as requested. Lewis listened as he asked Julie to see if they had any information on Dobbs, and then checked if there was anything else of interest that had happened that morning. Lewis waited as Julie began her reply but then Hathaway said “Hang on a second; I’ll put you on speakerphone so Inspector Lewis can hear what’s happened as well.”

They took a small diversion, so that they were behind the greenhouse and therefore out of hearing range of the others who were working in the garden.

“Okay, Julie,” Hathaway continued, “what’s this about someone finding some lupins?”

“Uniform had a call this morning from the vicar of St Agnes at Brightwell. He’d seen a van pull up outside the graveyard between about five and half past. He’d not thought anymore about it, until he walked through the graveyard later and found a homemade wooden cross pushed into the ground by the path and a number of lupins planted around it.”

“Thank you,” Lewis said. “Do you know if he’s moved anything?”

“I can phone him and make sure he doesn’t. Shall I tell him you’re coming over?”

“Yes, please.”

***

The journey to Brightwell took just over half an hour. They called at the vicarage and were greeted by the vicar who took them to see the graveyard.

“Were you surprised to see a van stop that early in the morning?” Lewis asked.

“A bit. But it’s not unknown for someone to stop at that time. There aren’t many public conveniences around, but there is a very convenient group of trees behind the churchyard.”

Lewis grunted.

“So that’s what I assumed the occupant was doing - until I went to the church later to say the morning office. It just seemed so strange. I wasn’t even sure whether it was worth contacting the police, but there has been a spate of thefts in a number of the larger houses around the area and I suppose I thought that maybe someone had hidden something. I’m sorry if I’ve brought you out on a wild goose chase.”

“You’ve not touched anything?” Hathaway asked.

“Nothing at all. Here we are.” The vicar pointed to a rough wooden cross, which had been made by binding together two branches that looked if they’d been pulled from a bonfire. The lupins were bright orange and had been pushed into the ground.

“Do you still bury people in this graveyard?” Hathaway asked.

“There are a few spaces for family relatives on the far side,” the vicar pointed towards the wall, “but otherwise no. Sometimes parishioners have their ashes scattered here, and you’ll see a number of cremation urns around.”

“Where do families leave flowers in memory in that case?” Lewis asked.

“There are spaces round the other side of the church. I can show you.”

They walked round the church and saw a number of vases of flowers, but no wreaths indicating a recent death.

“And most people are aware of this?” Hathaway asked.

“Oh yes. We always make sure that friends and relatives know that they are welcome to leave flowers here. Not that we object to them leaving flowers elsewhere, but this side is sheltered from the wind. We’re quite exposed up here as you can imagine.”

Hathaway nodded. “So if it had been someone who wished to leave flowers in the normal way of things they would have placed the lupins round here.”

The vicar agreed.

“Have you had any funerals lately?” Hathaway continued.

“The last funeral was Mrs Russell about eight months ago. Since then a couple of the villagers have died but their funerals were held elsewhere. It’s not unknown for people to leave flowers here even when the departed were non-churchgoers.”

“When was the last death?” Lewis asked.

“About three weeks ago. Dr Hebditch.”

“What, Dr Caroline Hebditch, the chemistry lecturer?” Hathaway interrupted.

“Yes, I believe so. I had met her a couple of times, but didn’t really know her.”

Lewis looked across at Hathaway and then said, “I think that’s probably all for now. We’ll ask our scenes of crime officers to come down and see what they can find, but unless you have anything further you wish to tell us, we should be heading back.”

The vicar nodded. “Will they take long, only there’s Evensong this afternoon at half past four and I’ll need to ensure people take the long way round to the church if necessary.”

“They shouldn’t be too long, and they’ll let you know if you need to make alternate arrangements.”

***

Once back in the car Lewis asked Hathaway, “So, what’s the significance of Caroline Hebditch?”

“She was working on a compound that had acquired the nickname of ‘Towering inferno’. It was unstable and if handled incorrectly could prove dangerous.”

“How come you know about this?”

“It came up in conversation at the pub after band practise. You know ‘name 10 films Steve McQueen starred in’, someone said ‘Towering Inferno’ and Gareth, who’s a lab technician, mentioned the compound.”

“Right. See what you can find out about this Dr Hebditch.”

Hathaway spent the rest of the journey back to Oxford making phone calls. As they reached the city Lewis suggested they grab a sandwich and Hathaway could tell him what he had learnt.

Once they were sitting on their favourite bench, Hathaway began. “It turns out that Dr Hebditch and Professor Broadbent had been working together on this particular project. There seem to have been questions recently about whether the work should continue or not – you remember Mrs Broadbent mentioned an academic spat – although I think it was rather more than that. They weren’t getting the required results and there was talk of the funding being withdrawn.”

“Was there anything suspicious about Dr Hebditch’s death?”

“Cause of death was an overdose of anti-depressants combined with whisky, although whether deliberate or accidental wasn’t established.”

“Was foul play ruled out?”

“There was no sign of an intruder in her cottage. And no suicide note. According to the cleaning lady, who had been there earlier in the day, the only things that had been moved were consistent with what she would have expected; washing up piled by the sink, that sort of thing.”

“So we have the lupins connecting Hebditch and Broadbent, but no clue as to who the rose bush represents,” Lewis said.

“It has to be connected with the research.”

“I agree. If you get yourself over to their lab and see what you can find out there, I’ll go and have another word with Mrs Broadbent. It may be that she knows more than she’s aware of.”

***

Lewis drove back to the Broadbents’ house and knocked on the door. A constable opened it.

“Good afternoon, sir.”

“I’ve come to speak to Mrs Broadbent. I assume she’s in.”

“Yes, sir. She’s in the dining room. I’ve been answering the door; news of the professor’s death has got around quickly and there have been a number of callers.”

“Very sensible.”

Lewis went in and the constable pointed him towards the dining room.

“Mrs Broadbent, I wonder if I could ask you some more questions,” Lewis began.

“Of course. Although, I’m not sure I can tell you anything more.”

“Did you know Dr Caroline Hebditch?”

“Slightly. She was a colleague of William’s.”

“Were you aware that she had died?”

“Yes, a sad overdose, poor woman. I told William that I’d go with him to the funeral if he wanted, but he said he’d be going with colleagues from his department.”

“Yet you said you didn’t know her well.”

“I didn’t. I just thought that if William was going to the funeral by himself he might like some company.”

“And when did you last see Dr Hebditch?”

“Let me think. It was about four or five weeks before her death I think. We held a dinner party here for a number of William’s colleagues. I can look up the exact date if you want.”

“Please.”

Mrs Broadbent checked the calendar. “It was ten weeks ago.”

“So, longer than you thought?”

“I’m afraid the weeks tend to blur a bit. And it wasn’t a particularly interesting party. I do remember that the weather was fine, because William showed people round the garden before we ate. Funnily enough, I seem to remember Dr Roberts making some sort of comment about the lupins. How strange.”

“Can you tell me about Dr Roberts? Would you know his first name?”

“Gavin, I think. William didn’t like him. He’d only invited him to dinner because he was involved with the same area of research as William and Caroline and if he hadn’t been invited he would have taken it badly.”

“Can you give me the details of the other guests?”

“Certainly. Would you like me to write them down?”

“Thank you.”

While Mrs Broadbent wrote down the names of the others who had been present at the dinner party, Lewis sent Hathaway a text telling him to take particular note of Dr Roberts, if he could find him.

***

Shortly after Lewis had returned to the station he received a call from Hathaway.

“Dr Roberts wasn’t in, but I understand that he and Broadbent had had a stand up row a week or so ago. Broadbent accused Roberts of trying to steal the funding for his own research. Roberts denied it, but did say that he believed Broadbent’s research should be stopped and that he was prepared to do everything he could to achieve that end.”

“Do we know why Roberts was saying this?”

“Up until quite recently Roberts had been working with Broadbent and Hebditch, but there had been a major argument about the direction the research should be going, and Roberts was trying to set up his own project. One of the technicians reported Broadbent as saying to Roberts that he would get the funding ‘over my dead body’ and Roberts replying ‘we shall see about that’, but the technician hadn’t taken it seriously since it wasn’t the first time their arguments had included such comments.”

“We need to find Roberts and question him about this. Take DC Conway and pick him up.”

***

Quarter of an hour later Lewis received a further call from Hathaway. “I think you should come over here, sir.”

When Lewis arrived at the house, Conway let him in. “Sergeant Hathaway asked if you could go straight through to the garden, sir.”

“Is there anyone else in the house?” Lewis asked.

“Mrs Roberts is upstairs, sir, but there’s no-one else around.”

Lewis nodded and walked through to the garden. In the flower border there was a space where a bush had quite recently been dug up. Towards the back of the garden was an open incinerator in which were a number of charred pieces of wood, similar to those they had seen made into a cross in St Agnes’ graveyard.

“It looks like you’ve found where the rose bush came from,” Lewis said.

“Yes, there are some leaves that must have been knocked off when the bush was dug up, together with a couple of red petals. It’s possible the leaves came off one of the other rose bushes, but none of them have flowers the right colour.”

“Has Mrs Roberts told you anything?”

“No. She’s a sister at the John Radcliffe and was on a night shift last night. Roberts was out by the time she got home this morning. She says this wasn’t unusual, as he sometimes went to the gym on his way to work.”

“So he could have gone out at any time. Did she mention the missing rose?”

“She hadn’t noticed anything. It had been a busy night, so she’d come home, made herself a cup of tea and some toast and taken it to bed.”

“Been there, done that,” Lewis grunted.

“Indeed.”

“Well, that, combined with the burnt wood is quite sufficient. I’ll put out a call to have him arrested.”

“He could be anywhere by now, sir.”

“True. But I don’t think he will have gone that far. It might help if we could track down the van the vicar saw.”

They went back into the house. Mrs Roberts had come downstairs, so Lewis asked her if her husband had access to a van.

“That’s a strange question,” she said. “Actually, he does. His brother has a van, which Gavin occasionally borrows.”

“Could you give me the brother’s address, please?”

“Of course, but he’s on holiday at the moment.”

“I don’t suppose you’d have a telephone number for him?”

Mrs Roberts wrote the number down. Lewis explained that they needed to speak to her husband urgently and that they would leave Conway at the house in case he came home. She looked alarmed, but Lewis didn’t elaborate.

Once outside, Hathaway rang Roberts’ brother, who gave him the registration number of the van. Hathaway then phoned the station and asked Julie to tell the uniform branch to look out for it. About five minutes later she reported that it had been spotted parked in a lay-by just outside the city. Hathaway told Lewis and requested that uniform and forensics meet them there.

As they approached the van they saw one of the back doors was slightly open and they could hear noises from inside. Cautiously Hathaway opened the door. He was about to speak when there was a shout. Hathaway moved to block the entrance, and gave a cry as a man pushed past him. The two uniformed officers gave chase and Lewis rushed to Hathaway. He could see him holding his shoulder as blood trickled through his fingers.

The fugitive didn’t get far. Lewis turned and saw he was already being handcuffed. “Call an ambulance,” he shouted, “and bring your first aid kit.”

Whilst one of the constables bandaged up the knife wound on Hathaway’s shoulder, Lewis went to look in the van. It was clear that Roberts had been trying to remove a blood stain from the floor of the van when Hathaway had interrupted his work.

***

Later, back at the station, Lewis went to see Innocent. She was on the phone, but beckoned him in when he knocked. He listened to her side of the conversation.

“No, sergeant, we do not need you to return to work. Inspector Lewis is about to update me on the case and I’m sure that anything additional that you wish to contribute can wait until tomorrow.”

A pause.

“As I said, sergeant, no. Do you have someone with you?” Presumably the reply was in the affirmative. “Then put them on.” Innocent waited while the phone was passed over. “You will take Sergeant Hathaway to the following address.”

Lewis looked slightly surprised to hear Innocent give his address. He caught a muffled “yes, ma’am” before she hung up and turned to him.

“I know Hathaway has a key to your flat. At least if he’s with you, you can keep an eye on him and stop him overdoing things.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Right, now that’s sorted, what have you got to tell me?”

“Roberts is maintaining he had nothing to do with Broadbent’s death. He’s also saying that he attacked Hathaway in self-defence. We’ve left his solicitor to explain to him that given three witnesses to the act no-one will believe him.”

“Do you think he believes it himself?”

“Only insofar as Hathaway’s arrival prevented him from finishing his cleaning job.”

“Have you asked about the plants?”

“Yes. He said that it was only appropriate that a Towering Inferno should be dealt with by a Fire Fighter.”

“Has he explained how the plants were swapped if he had no responsibility for Broadbent’s death?”

“Not as yet. The solicitor requested an adjournment before his client could, er, dig himself a deeper hole.”

Innocent glared at Lewis. “I knew Hathaway didn’t need to come back. You’re quite capable of producing awful puns by yourself.”

*****

Innocent had confirmed to Lewis that Roberts would be detained overnight, before going before the magistrate in the morning. As was expected he was remanded in custody for the knife attack on Hathaway, which gave Lewis and Hathaway time to further examine the case.

Hathaway had spread the photos from the case all over the desk and was waiting impatiently for Lewis to type up their observations. He had tried to do so himself, but with one arm in a sling he had grown so frustrated with his inability to manage that Lewis had insisted that he take over.

“So,” Lewis said, once he had stopped typing, “we can assume that Roberts killed Broadbent in the van, from the blood stain. But what was he doing in there? What if Roberts had come round just to swap his rosebush for the lupins and was surprised by Broadbent’s presence in the garden?”

“It seems to have been reasonably well known that Broadbent was an early riser,” Hathaway replied. “At least amongst the staff, so I don’t think Roberts was taken by surprise. And there would be no reason for him to be carrying the knife he used to kill Broadbent if he wasn’t planning something like that.”

“Have they identified the knife?”

Hathaway hunted amongst the reports on the desk. “It was a fairly standard carpenters’ knife, as was the one he used on me. Roberts’ brother is a carpenter, and if he had access to the van I imagine he would have had access to the tools.”

Lewis thought for a minute and then said, “Can you find the preliminary pathology report?” When Hathaway passed it over Lewis glanced at it and said, “Look here. Broadbent had a considerable amount of soil on his hands, consistent with having been digging in the garden. What if Roberts got Broadbent to dig up the lupins himself and then carry them to the van? He could have threatened him with the knife, made him climb into the van to put the lupins down and then stabbed him.”

“That’s a possibility. Roberts is a big man; Broadbent was quite slight, so he probably wouldn’t have put up a fight initially and then it would have been too late.”

“It still doesn’t really explain why he left the lupins and the burnt wooded cross at St Agnes, though.”

“Maybe it was purely symbolic,” Hathaway said. “Using the lupins to link the two deaths, with the burnt cross showing that the Towering Inferno was no longer burning? I suppose it’s possible that Roberts did have something to do with Hebditch’s death. Let me see what the inquest said.”

Hathaway scanned through the report. “The doctor stated that Hebditch had been to see him about five days before her death. She had said she was under considerable pressure at work and that some of her colleagues were making things very difficult for her. She had some important decisions to make and she wanted to make them without being what she termed ‘emotionally compromised’. Initially he hadn’t wanted to prescribe anything, but had agreed to giving her something as a temporary measure. He hadn’t believed her to be suicidal in any way.”

Lewis thought for a minute. “The coroner’s report stated there was no evidence of an intruder, but Roberts could have called round and been let in. I presume there were no reports of visitors?”

“No. But if Roberts was trying to put pressure on her, he wouldn’t necessarily have had to do so in person. A phone call would have been just as effective.”

“I don’t suppose anyone checked Hebditch’s phone records at the time?”

“No, there was no reason to. Do you want me to get onto it?”

***

Later, Lewis went to see Innocent. “We can’t prove that Roberts was instrumental in Hebditch’s death, but he was definitely guilt of harassing her. He’d been phoning her three or four times every evening in the days leading up to her death, including the day she died. She never phoned him so it seems likely it wasn’t a reciprocal relationship.”

Innocent nodded.

“We’ve also found calls from Roberts to Broadbent in the past few days, including one the night before he was killed. Mrs Broadbent said she thought her husband had been late going to bed; it’s highly possible that it was the call from Roberts that kept him up.”

“And do you think the Roberts arranged to meet Broadbent?”

“I think it’s very likely. We’re going to interview him again this afternoon.”

***

The interview proved unhelpful. Roberts continued to deny killing Broadbent, although he was willing to explain at great length the failures of Broadbent’s research and why it had been vitally important that he, Roberts, should act as the fire fighter for the ‘towering inferno’. When asked about Hebditch he maintained that he had been presenting reasonable arguments as to why she should change her research and that it was Broadbent who was bullying her.

Lewis and Hathaway left the interview feeling frustrated.

“It’ll be up to the court now,” Lewis said. “We’ve done all we can, so I suggest we call it a day and grab a pint. And you can make suggestions as to what I can plant in my garden. Just so long as it doesn’t include lupins or roses.”


End file.
